Job advice: Ask critical questions before accepting offers

"Job hunters need to do their own research."
Brad Karsh, president JB Training Solutions

Ask the tough questions before you accept a job offer.

Tempted
to accept a job offer without asking too many questions?

As great
as that temptation may be, particularly in today's economy, outplacement
consultants say it's important to first ask —and get answers to --- critical
questions about the new job and company you'll be joining.

Here's
why. Job hunters often assume companies wouldn't be hiring if they weren't in
good financial condition. In truth,
however, companies can feel an urgency to fill key technical and/or management
roles for existing projects even when the companies' overall financial
condition is precarious.

Unfortunately,
when that happens, the person hired for a particular project may soon learn that
other departments or divisions of the company are suffering with debt and
declining revenues.

As a
result, the new job may be short-lived, lasting only until the project for
which the person was hired, is completed. At that point, the company may have
to trim its employee ranks, including the new person hired for that project. Sometimes,
the company may be so financially troubled it ends up declaring bankruptcy
leaving all its employees without jobs.

Sound
farfetched? Perhaps but I've seen such situations, even known someone recruited
and relocated across the country to head up a one-year project for a consulting
firm -- only to be told (after relocating and uprooting his family) that the company
he joined was near bankruptcy. Needless to say, having to initiate a job search
in an unfamiliar city just months after relocating was far from desirable.

The
situation might have been avoided had the gentleman in question learned more about
the company pursuing him before accepting that company's job and relocation
offer. What he didn't realize was that sometimes a manager or executive
responsible for staffing an important project will fail to mention major
problems in other areas of the company when interviewing someone he believes
capable of rescuing a project that needs to be staffed quickly.

"It's
not necessarily a case of being devious," said Brad Karsh, president of JB
Training Solutions whose first book was Confessions of a Recruiting
Director.
"Sometimes a company's recruiter isn't aware of the organization's difficulties
or at least the severity of them. Sometimes senior executives keep between
themselves the fact that they're staffing up in anticipation of landing a
particular project even though they know they may have to downsize or close
their doors if that new business doesn't materialize. That's why job hunters
need to do their own research."

How can you
find out what's really going on inside a company before joining it?

"Read
trade publications to see if the company downsized recently or had publicly disclosed
problems," suggested Karsh. "You can also discretely inquire with your contact
network. See if anyone knows former employees who recently left the
organization. Those folks shouldn't have a reason to understate the company's difficulties."

Using your
network to make contact with current employees may also unearth relevant
information. Those employees might be willing
to be candid about the company's fragile finances. They might empathize with you
as a job hunter and, in fact, hope someone would give them the straight scoop
about a troubled organization if they're ever in a situation like yours. At a
minimum, they might be more forthcoming with you than the hiring manager or
recruiter was, feeling that their honesty would at least enable you to make an
informed decision.

After
all, even armed with information about a company's troubles, an unemployed job
hunter might still accept the job offer he or she received figuring that a
paycheck for a period of time is better than no paycheck at all. And indeed,
for someone who's been unemployed awhile, it can be. The benefits of
re-employment tend to include a boost in self-confidence and a recent job entry
on a resume as well as regular weekly earnings.

What if
the job offered involves relocation? If your research suggests the organization
is suffering with financial difficulties, you might still accept the offer and
rent in the new location but not ask your spouse, if you're married, to leave a
secure job and income to relocate, too. That way, if the job turns out to be
relatively short-term, you can resume your life and job search back in your original
community with your spouse's income still intact to cover day-to-day expenses.

At a
minimum, researching a company before joining it can help keep you from taking
risks that later prove too costly.